CONCEIVED IN DARKNESS

CHAPTER 18

Hey guys, I am deeply sorry for not having posted in a while. 2017 will be better, I promise. 

Which is why I have made this chapter long and enjoyable to make you happy. 

Enjoy the read thank you for for always standing by. God bless you. 

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Adanna alighted from the bus just like the rest of the passengers, scouting for a way out or an alternative to what she thought to be a dangerous situation. It took a few minutes for her brain to register that there was actually no threat just a tire burst in the middle of the road at night. Sighing, she rubbed her temples and brought out her phone. The battery was low but it was no wonder when she saw 60 missed calls all from one person. Claire. She would have thought her mother but apparently one more thing she was wrong about.

"You can all go in now. Sorry for the delay" the conductor said.

Adanna found it strange for a bus conductor to be polite in Lagos state. Many of them wouldn't apologize some might even blame the flat tire on their extra size passengers. The journey continued though not for long as the driver ordered everyone out of the car repeating as he parked "last bus stop oya oya commot for my car"

Adanna got down confused not knowing where she was. Grateful for an elderly woman's intervention who probably saw her distress and approached her "are you alright my dear? She asked.

"not really ma, but where are we?"

"Ilaje bus stop. Where are you going?"

"Here"

"okay then, be alert and careful. The night is full of surprises" she smiled and patted her back.

"Thank you. I wont forget that."

Adanna slept near the bus stop that night. She found a fairly clean spot at the shed of a provision store and rested for the night. She checked her personal items and saw everything was intact, she exhaled in gratitude. It was just the crack of dawn and she hurried to freshen up with a sachet of water she purchased from a hawker; something she learnt from attending a federal government secondary school. She then asked a passerby where should find kaduna by car.

Why Kaduna? she didn't know.

My cash is going down slowly she thought as she paid the car fare to Kaduna and hopped in. Somehow she felt relieved. She had no friends or relatives in Kaduna. But she felt it was the right destination.

"Lord, did I make the right decision leaving home? I know it was hasty. I'm sorry Lord. Please have your way." She prayed silently.

Kaduna was a fourteen-hour journey so they arrived at about 10pm in the night. She checked her wallet again to see how much she had left. It wasn't a lot, barely enough to get a hotel room. She left the park and stood by its entrance to try and get a taxi to any nearby hotel.

Her stomach grumbled with hunger, having eaten only gala and a drink which she had bought on the road. As Adanna stood there hungry and cold, she remembered the warning of the elderly woman at the bus stop "the night is full of surprises." She shivered and shrugged it off. She saw another guy and a lady not too far from where she stood also trying to wave down a cab and walked up to them to do same. Fifteen minutes later, a cab came by and they entered leaving her to wait for another. She felt alone now. Unlike Lagos, Kaduna was eerily quiet at night.

She spotted some strange guys approaching her and her instinct kicked in and told her to Run.

She couldn't go back to the park because they were approaching from that direction, so she ran further screaming "help" as she ran. When she looked back after a few minutes and didn't see them again, she slowed down to job so as not to miss a cab not knowing she hadn't seen the last of them. As she traipsed through the quiet streets of Mando, north of Kaduna, the same guys came back for her only this time they weren't walking rather in a speeding van. Caught unaware, Adanna was grabbed and tossed into the van that smelled strongly of rotten fish and old clothes.